Life as I Know it
by Keeper of all Dreams
Summary: When April finds a young, newly changed mutant, she takes it to the only ones she can trust with the child, the turtles and Splinter. This story shows what growing up with the turtles was like for the young lizard mutant.
1. Chapter 1

A young girl, who seemed to be about twelve years old, skipped happily down the sidewalk, her mother walking a short distance behind her.

The girl held a small container, which contained a small, multi-colored lizard. "Are you sure you want a lizard as a pet? They're so...boring. Maybe we should bring it back and get a puppy, maybe even a kitten."

Her mother called as she reached her daughters side and looked warily down at the box in her daughters hand. The child nodded enthusiastically. "I really do, Mom. I think lizards make the best pets. Besides, a lizard won't destroy all your shoes like a puppy or kitten would."

The child lifted a flap of the box and peered inside to make sure her new pet was still secure. A soft sigh of defeat slipped from the mother as she looked at the reptile in the box.

"Okay, what are you going to name it?" The answer was instantaneous. "Renée! And, Mom, its a girl. A beautiful, girl, African Blue headed lizard." The mother rolled her eyes slightly. "How old did the man say she was?" The mother asked, starting to rummage in her purse for something. "Still a baby. He didn't say exactly." The mother nodded absently as she pulled a pair of sunglasses out of her bag and slid them onto her face.

They had only walked a short distance more when a man ran past, snagging the mother's hand bag. "Hey!" The mother whipped around and, in doing so, bumped her daughter, who dropped the box. The box popped open and the young lizard scampered out and into a pile of boxes nearby. The mother, having started after the thief, didn't notice anything until her daughter let out a fearful screech. The boxes had hidden a broken bottle of mutagen, which the lizard had darted into and, almost instantly, started changing. The mother screamed in fear, grabbed her daughters hand, and darted away.

A girl nearby, who was about nineteen, had watched the whole thing and now approached the young mutant, who was sitting confusedly in the boxes. She pulled the lizard child out of the boxes, kicking them back over the mutagen to keep others off of it, then slid down the nearby ally. She dropped into the sewer system, stopping in her tracks as two bright blue eyes started at her from the shadows. "April? What are you doing here? I thought you couldn't come today. Who is that!" The exited voice of Michelangelo rang through the dark as he caught sight of the child in Aprils arms. "Things changed. Obviously, she is a mutant. Are the others nearby?" Mikey nodded and turned, quickly disappearing into the darkness, only to return a few minutes later with his three brothers. "April!" Donatello was obviously surprised, although pleased, to see her, his eyes only widened as his gaze fell upon the child in her arms. "Who is that?" He asked, stepping closer to her and looking curiously at the lizard. April sighed slightly. "I thought that you guys, out of all of New York, would now a freshly changed mutant when you saw one." Leonardo stepped up next to his brother. "Lets get back to the lair, then we can talk about who that is." He said as Raphael dragged the manhole cover back onto the hole and dropped down next to them. "We can pick up scavenging later."


	2. Chapter Two

**This chapter is a bit longer than my first one and it goes through about half of Renée's first day. The next chapter should be up soon. I do write and update on my IPod, so I apologize for any oddly placed/misspelled words in all chapters**

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It didn't take long to get the lair and gather everyone up. April told them what she had seen and heard, which included the mutants name. The lizard was happy enough to sit on Aprils lap and study her newfound fingers or go off and explore, trying multiple times to stand and walk around. The four brothers quickly agreed to keep her with them, a decision that Splinter happily agreed with as well, after all, who better to raise a mutant than a mutant? April left shortly after and all attention turned to the child. "She's so little." Was the first thing Mikey said about her, which drew out a small chuckle from Splinter. "You were barely bigger than her when I first brought you here." A slight smile pulled at his lips as he fondly remembered the day he had brought his young sons to the lair. The family sat on the couch, watching the child roam around, stopping briefly by each of them and happily sitting on their laps for a few moments before waddling off. After a while, she stopped by Raph and held up her arms, begging to be held. He glanced at her over the top of the comic book he had been reading, then sighed softly and pulled her onto his lap. She snuggled happily against him and gazed up at the pictures of the book in his hands. "Soooo..." The red masked turtle drew the word out as he shut the book and set it aside. "What did April say her name was?" A amused smile fluttered across Leo's face as he answered. "Renée. She's about four. That's about all we know about her. That and the fact that she was a lizard, not a child, before she mutated." Raph nodded slightly, his gaze softening as it dropped down to the child, who was now nearly asleep on his lap. Leo and Donnie exchanged knowing looks, having only seen Raph look at one thing, Spike, that way, that was right before he claimed turtle as his own. Mikey missed out on the entire thing because he was silently trying to get the comic book away from Raph side without getting tackled.

A few short minutes after climbing into Raph's lap, Renée was sound asleep and Raph deemed himself stuck on his spot, not moving so that he wouldn't wake her. Donnie stood a short while later and dragged Leo off to prepare a room for their newest family member.

Most of the extra rooms had been filled with extra items long ago, weapons, pizza boxes(some still had a priece or two in them), prototypes of robots, and a bunch of miscellaneous junk. As they sorted and cleaned the room, which had been Aprils when she lived with them, Donnie turned to his older brother. "Did you see the way Raph was looking at Renée? It's been awhile since I've seen him look at anything like that." Leo chuckled slightly as he lifted a box of Mikey's old action figures and comics. "Not since he first got Spike. I have a feeling he is going to be protective over her, probably more so than he is over his pet." Don nodded slightly, gathering up a pile of his discarded robot parts. "Well, at least it isn't Mikey who will be." The two brothers glanced over at their younger brother, who was carrying the box that Leo had just put down back to his room. A relieved chuckle echoed between them. "Yeah, Raph will at least remember to feed her." Leo said as he pulled a pile of junk off the bed and into one of the empty boxes that were scattered on the floor. "It'll be kind of odd to have a child with us. We've been the only children that's ever lived down here, so it's defiantly a first for us." Donnie nodded in agreement and he dragged the dusty, stained covers off the bed. "But just think of all we get to teach her. We can teach her ninjutsu, weaponry, hand-to-hand combat. We get to train her to become a ninja, just like Master Splinter trained us. I bet its going to be fun." Leo piled the last of the boxes up and picked them up, carrying them past Donnie as they made their way to the door. "True, that's going to be fun, but we also have to teach her to talk. And I'm sure you are going to ingrain some math and sciencey stuff into her poor head." Donnie nodded to show that his brothers words were quite true. "Well, we don't want her to end up like Mikey. No brain and all..." Donnie stopped as he searched for a word to describe their brother. "Brainless." Leo said as he kicked the door to the other extra room open and dropped his pile of boxes. Donnie gave him a not-the-word-I-was-looking-for-but-it'll-work shrug and slung the dirty sheets over his shoulders. "Let's see if we can track down a clean blanket and pillow and free Raph from his prison." Leo nodded towards his room. "I think I have a couple extra pillows and a blanket or two I can spare in my room. I'll go get them." He darted over to him room, Donnie at his heels, and swung the door open. His brother stuck his head in and gazed around the room. It was sort of a unsaid rule amongst them that each others rooms were off limits, so he had never actually seen inside of Leo's room. It was pretty much as he imagined it, covered wall to wall with notes on how to perfect ninjutsu moves, diagrams of poses, and other stuff that was quite similar to those. The one thing that he hadn't expected was a picture, hanging by a couple of needles stuck into the wall, of Karai and Leo, side by side and smiling happily. Donnie's eyes widened slightly in surprise and he quickly withdrew his head as Leo stood with a pillow on top of a neatly folded blanket. "Here we go. These should work for her. Lets go make her bed and get Renée." Donnie nodded and whipped around, hoping to hide the smile that was creeping slowly across his face.

After preparing the bed for the child, the two brothers went to where they had left Raph and Renée. Raph was now laying on his back with Renée sleeping peacefully on his plastron, her small hand wrapped around the jagged, lightning shaped cut in it. The red masked turtle turned to face his brothers as they neared. Donnie and Leo barely suppressed a laugh at the sigh of their brother with the child sleeping peacefully on his chest. "What're you two smirking about?" He growled, though he obviously knew what had caused the smirks to appear. As be spoke, the child started stirring in her sleep, letting out unhappy hiss-like noises. She suddenly jerked upright and glanced around with wide, confused eyes, then started crying. Raph jerked upright and looked helplessly at his two brothers. "How to get her to stop crying?" The two others shrugged, just as unknowing as their brother. Master Splinter suddenly appeared behind the couch and scooped the wailing child into his arms, gently rocking her. "It works just as well for her as it did for you four." The rat said, a slight smile creeping onto his lips as the wailing quieted down to a gentle whimper, then faded away completely. The small lizard child buried her head into Splinters shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck as if it were the only thing keeping her from her nightmares. "Hush now, child. Your safe here." He whispered gently to her as he swayed from side to side in and soothingly rubbed her back. After she released his neck and seemed to have settled down a bit, Splinter set her down and she wandered off to explore. He turned to Donnie, Raph and Leo. "You three. Go find Michelangelo and continue your scavenging. This child needs some toys to keep her entertained. The three turtles bowed respectfully to their _Sensei_ and went off to locate their younger brother.

Splinter watched as his four sons went off, then led his new daughter over to the T.V and sat her down with one of the many Space Heroes episodes Leo had on it(though he rarely watched them anymore), then sat down to meditate as he awaited his son's to return.


	3. Chapter 3

The four turtles returned about twenty minutes later, each of them with a few things that they had found amidst the trash and sewage. Splinter rose to greet his sons and Renée padded over to them, curious about the things they had brought in.

Raph was the first to greet the child, crouching down so that he was eye level with her. He pulled a nearly new stuffed rabbit out if his bags and held it out to her. "Here you go, Rennie. It's a rabbit. _Usagi_. " the lizard took the rabbit toy in her hands and blinked at it, then turned her gaze back to the red banded turtle. "U...usi.." She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to work out how to said the word. "Usugi... _Usagi_!" Her sea blue eyes snapped open, filled with joy as she managed the word. Raphael chuckled and patted her blue head as she hugged the rabbit you close. "Good job, Squirt. Your a quick learner." Mikey, who had been leaning over his older brothers shoulder grin joyously. "Master Splinter, did you head that? Renée can speak!" The rat looked up from his spot on the couch were he was watching Donnie fix a small windup toy he had found. The young girl ran over to Splinter, the rabbit toy held out in front of her. "_Usagi_! _Usagi_!" She cried happily as she neared him. He chuckled slightly and couched down next to her. "Indeed, Renée. _Usagi_. Rabbit." She grinned happily and darted over to show the other two boys in the room. Splinter smiled and watched her, amused at how such simple things could bring joy to children. Leo appeared at his side. "It's amazing how easy children are to please. She has a stuffed rabbit and a word and she's beaming." He said, unknowingly voicing his masters thoughts. The _sensei_ nodded. "Children are probably the most amazing hung on this planet. Joyed at such simple things and seeing so much more than we adults do." A smile crept over his face. "You and Raphael were never much like that, even when you were younger than she. Your brothers however." He turned to look at Donnie and Mikey, who were gathered around the table watching the windup bob its way across. Donnie had a extremely satisfied look as he watched, Renée and Mikey were just fascinated at the moving object. "They were very childish."

Leo chuckled slightly. "I'm not sure Mikey ever outgrew his childishness." He said as he watched his youngest brother, who dished forwards and caught the toy as it toppled off the side of the table, then wound it back up and set it down to watch. Splinter nodded as he watched the two youngest of the family. "Michelangelo most certainly hasn't lost the childlike view in this world." He murmured in agreement with his eldest.

Renée, having the attention span of the child she was, only watched the toy for a minute or so before age padded off in search of something new. She dropped down on her hands and knees and started crawling around, the rabbit toy, who would never be called anything other than _Usagi_, held, with one hand, tightly to her chest. She crawled about until she located a small bug, which she easily caught. Splinter, having watched he and knowing what was about to happen, raced forwards in time to keep the bug from entering his new daughters mouth. "Michelangelo." The orange clad turtle jumped and whipped around as he heard his name. "Yes, Master Splinter?" He asked, completely confused as to what his father might want from him.

Splinter scooped Renée into his arms and she started chewing on Usagi's head. "Renée is hungry, why don't you go get done pizza for supper." The word 'pizza' instantly perked Mikey up and he darted off with a quick "Yes, _Sensei_."

It didn't even take Mikey twenty minutes to get the pizza and soon they were all gathered around the box, grabbing for a piece before Mikey stole it all. Splinter had Leo cut a slice up into bite sized pieces for Renée and put it in one of the few plates they had. She was obviously confused at first as to what to do, but they Leo held a piece up to her mouth and she eagerly ate it, then swiftly devoured the rest. She picked up the plate in one hand and Usagi in the other, then walked over to Leo and held up her plate, asking for more. He chuckled slightly and sagged Mikey's fifth slice away from him, then, after cutting it up, handed the now full plate back to Renée for her to eat.

Once everyone had eaten and the mess was mostly cleaned up, the boys all went off to do their own thing. Mikey was playing a game on his T-Phone, Leo and Raph had disappeared with Splinter into the dojo to spar, and Donnie slipped off into his lab to tinker with one of the new gadgets he was working on. Renée, instantly bored, padded after Donnie, Usagi clutched tightly in her arms. The purple banded turtle looked up as she padded into the room. "Hey there, Ren. What're you doing in here?" He asked, spinning around to face her. She glanced around the room, her eyes widened with fascination as the many machines, most of which were only half finished, that were scattered around the room caught her eye. She placed a hand on his laptop, which was closed and sitting next to his most recent project. She turned her gaze to him, her eyes asking the question she couldn't word. He chuckled slightly and knelt next to her. "Laptop. Here." He picked her up with one arm and the computer up with his other, then returned to his chair. He turned it on and smiled as wonder filled her blue eyes. He showed her the many functions of the electronic, which she was more than happy to sit and watch, then turned on a movie for her. He set her at his desk with the movie, and went over to finish the project he had been working on, a new Stealth Bike, Raph had nearly destroyed the old one last week, so he had decided to put on a few improvements as he fixed it.

Not even a hour later, Renée had fallen asleep, curled up like a cat in his chair, and Donnie was putting the finishing touches on the Stealth Bike as Raph, Leo, and Mikey stuck their head in. "Hey, Donnie, are you going to come patrolling with us or should we leave you to your tinkering." Leo called out, knowing that there were a few nights that Donnie stayed behind to finish a project of two. Don looked up, flipping his goggles off of his eyes so that he could see his brothers properly. "I'm coming. Just let me finish the Stealth Bike real quick." He glanced over at the lizard as she slept. "Why don't you guys get Renée in bed, I should be finished by then." He suggested as he flipped his goggles back down and set to work of the bike. Leo nodded and pulled the child into his arms, then set off toward her room. Five minutes later, she was snuggled in bed and Donnie had put the Stealth Bike back in its spot in the ShellRaser and they set off for their nightly patrol of the city.


	4. First lessons

**Much thanks is sent out to those who followed and reviewed this story. Renée sends out glomps to you all!**

**If you see any misspellings/misplaced words, please, PLEASE, tell me so I can fix them. I type this up on my iPod, so I'm sure I make mistakes. I'd really appreciate it if you could show me these mistakes so they can be fixed. Please and thank you!**

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**Three Weeks Later:**

Renée sat, her legs folded nearly under her body as she watched two of her older brothers spar with their weapons. Her gaze followed every move that Leo and Donnie made as they attempted to overpower each other. Donnie swung at Leo's legs, which was easily avoided, but also opened a gap for a quick follow up swing that knocked the blue banded turtle into his shell.

Donnie held his bo up to his brothers neck, a victorious gleam in his eyes. Leo cast a glance over at his katana, which had been kicked aside by Donnie. He cast his gaze back to his brother and grinned slightly, then used his legs to knock Don over and, in the process, swooped his sword into his hands. Donnie was quick to recover, but in seconds the two brothers had blades at each others throats, so Splinter called them to a halt.

"That is enough. Well done you two." They bowed to their sensei, then sheathed their weapons and returned to their spot as Raphael and Mikey stood and moved up to face each other. Renée scooted closer to her sitting brothers, leaning forwards as she eagerly waited for the spar to start. It ended quickly, with Raph sitting on Mikey's shell, which was expected, and Mikey begging for him to get off, also expected. Once they managed to drag Raph off of his younger brother, the boys headed out of the dojo and into the main section of the lair.

Renée hung back, which instantly struck Splinter as odd. He shut the door to the dojo and knelt in front of the small lizard.

"Nanika ga machigatte iru?~ Is something wrong?" He asked, worried for the child. She shook her head and twisted her tail in her small hands, chewing on her lip, which he knew she did when she was trying to figure out what to say. After a minute or so, the words seemed to come to her.

"Sensei..." She paused, chewing her lip again for a brief moment. "Toki ni... watashi wa densha ni... nyūshu dekimasu ka?~ When do I get to train?" She looked away, as if asking such a simple question could very well be worth a scolding. Splinter stroked his goatee for a moment, then looked into the pleading eyes of the youngster. "Ima?~ Now?" The girls eyes lit up and she nodded happily. He chuckled and stood, then started her first lesson.

Renée had shocked them all with how quickly she could catch onto words and phrases and work out how to speak properly. She still was at a loss for words many times a day, but she was already nearly fluent in Japanese, it was actually spoken quite a bit when the turtles and their teacher were alone, and was learning more English each day. Seeing how quickly she had learned to speak, it didn't surprise the old rat when she quickly caught onto the lesson and took it in full stride, eager to learn every move she could in as short a time as she could.

After about a half hour of training, Splinter sent the child off and she scampered into the main room, where her four brothers were gathered around the T.V, playing one of the video games April had gotten them. Renée ran forwards and tackle-hugged Leo, who was unfortunately enough to have been stuck on the floor closest to the dojo. His car swerved off the racing track and into the bubbling lake of lava that the track was set around, right as Raph's car drove past and crossed the finish line. "Ikko sore!" He growled as he watched the others drive across the finish line. He turned to the young lizard, who was obviously confused as to why her brother had just growled at her. He sighed and set the remote down, then pulled the child onto his lap. "Not you, Renée. Raph beat me at the game." He said, tickling her sides as she squirmed helplessly in his grasp.

"Leo! Stop! No tickle!" She screeched happily and she tried to pry his hands off of her. "Tickle Raphie! Tickle Raphie!" She laughed, pointing at Raph as she spoke. The red turtle leaned forward and snatched her out of his older brothers hands.

"Saved you!" Leo jumped to his feet and let out a low drown. "Rawr! I'm a fierce dragon! How dare you steal my princess! I'll eat you and return her to her keep!" Right from one of the story books she insisted on them reading to her before she went to sleep every night( blame Mikey!).

Raph whipped one if his sais out of their sheaths and held it out towards Leo. "No, you may be a fierce, fire-breathing dragon, but I will return this fare maiden to her family and slay you! Stay back!" Raph started backing up, then, quite suddenly, Renée wasn't in his arms. He glanced up to see Mikey hanging upside down with Renée giggling happily in his arms. "Ha! I'm one of the many goblins that roam these parts. I have stolen your fare princess and shall take her away and gobble her up!" Her rasped, tickling Renée as he pretended to eat her.

Suddenly Donnie launched himself from his staff and snatched the child out of Mikey's hands as he passed. "Not quite Goblin, for I, a simple elf shall save this younger maiden and keep her from any farther harm. Ignorant beasts, hotheaded fools! You shan't have her!" Mikey dropped down and all three of the remaining brothers started after Donnie and Renée. The young girl was yanked, tossed, swung, and handed between the turtles, giggling merrily, until Master Splinter made the foolish decision to leave his meditating and see what all the yelling, laughing, screeching, and general noise was about.

He opened the dojo door and stepped out. The 'Goblin' currently had the laughing Renée, and he was running away from the 'Dragon, Knight, and Elf'. They all spotted Splinter a second too late. Mikey crashed into Splinter, which caused the other three to stop, run into each other, and topple onto the pile.

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**The way I do their japanese translations may change up a bit in the future as I try to figure out what I was to do. If you have any suggestions, if love to these them. Also, I got all my Japanese from google translate, so it's sketchy at best, but it works. If you have any suggestions for the translations, please shoot me a PM or spots it in the review box thingy. Thankies much for the time you spent reading this, I hope the story was worth it to you^~^**


	5. Meeting April

Here you guys go, another chapter. So sorry it took so long, I've been dealing with some writers block and could _not_ think of anything to type. It's a much shorter chapter than my others, so I apologize for that as well. Maybe now I can go reply to all my mweor roleplays I've been procrastinating about, probably not though.

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The room fell silent as the four turtles, Splinter, and Renée lay in the pile, then Renée's laughs started bubbling up once again. Her laugh became quite contagious as the pile unraveled themselves and, by the time everyone was back on their feet, the room was filled with laughter from all six of the mutants. As Splinter stood, he took the brief time to hit all of the turtles on the head. Their laughing turned to soft groans of pain as they clutched or rubbed the spot he had hit.

"I guess we kind of deserved that." Mikey chuckled. Splinter nodded and turned to Leo. "Why don't you all take Renée out. It will be good for her to get out of the lair. Do _not_ go out of the sewers." He added, seeing the instant gleam in the four boys eyes. Leo nodded and scooped his sister into his arms. "Hai, Sensei." He bowed slightly, then led the way into the sewers. After seventeen years of living in the sewers, the four turtles knew the entire system like the back of their hands, but, for Renée, the place was like a jungle. As soon as Leo set her down, she darted off to explore, the four turtles keeping a close watch on her as they walked. They were passing under a manhole cover, when it slid open. In a instant, Raph had Renée in his arms and was in the shadows, as were his brothers. They watched as a form dropped down, then dragged the cover back on. Mikey crept forwards silently, then jumped onto the young girls back. The teenager barely had time to scream before she toppled over, saved only by Leo stepping out and grabbing her arm.

"Mikey! How many times have I told you not too do that? You could have crushed me." The remaining turtles crept out of their hiding spots as April scolded Mikey. "April. He's tuned you put." Donnie called out to his friend. She cast a quick glance at the orange masked turtle, letting out a frustrated sigh as she saw the all too familiar 'tuned out' look on Mikey's face. She turned to face the three remaining brothers and opened her mouth to speak, but then she saw Renée. "Oh my gosh! Is that Renée? She had gotten so big since I last saw her! She's so cute!" She stepped towards Raph and held out her arms to the lizard. "Can I please hold her?" She begged, turning a pleading gaze to Raph. Raph opened his mouth to reply, but a childish voice spoke out first.

"Īe, anata wa watashi o hoji suru koto wa wa anata o shirimasen!(No, you will not be able to hold me. I do not know you!)" April blinked, obviously shocked that she was able to speak, then laughed." I guess she doesn't remember me. It had been a few weeks, and she was still pretty shocked when I left her with you guys. Let's get back to the Lair, if that's alright with you guys." The boys agreed and they small group turned and splashed back home.

-At The Lair-

Once everyone had settled down, April and Donnie started working on her college homework. Eventually, Renée's curiosity got the best of her and she wandered over to her purple banded brothers side. He hardly noticed her as he worked out one of the calculus problems. April, however, looked up and smiled at the child. "Hello, Renée. You coming to help us with my schoolwork?" The multicolored lizard shook her head and pressed closet to Donnie. "Come on, Rennie. Stop being shy." He pulled her onto his lap. "This is April. She's the one that brought you here. She's a friend." He promised.

The young lizard blinked at April for a moment, chewing her lip, with Usagi clutched tightly to her chest. "April? April nice?" She turned her questioning look to her purple masked brother, who nodded. "April is very nice." He assured her. She slid off of his lap and walked slowly over to the red haired teen. Once she reached Aprils side, Renée lifted her blue eyes up to look at the older girl. A soft giggle escaped her lips. "April, you look weird." She pushed on Aprils nose. "Your face is flat." April laughed slightly and nodded. "I look normal for where I come from. My friends would think you look weird." Renée's eyes widened, then she laughed as if April had just made the funniest joke. "Your weird. Usagi likes you." She nodded slightly, then turned and darted away to bug one of her other brothers. April turned her questioning look to Donnie. "Usagi? Who is Usagi?" A smile flickered over Donnie's face. "Her stuffed rabbit. Raph found it for her. She usually has it with her. We call it Usagi because that was her first word, and its a rabbit." April glanced over at Renée, who was now following Raph around the lair, begging him to play with her, and smiled. "She's a sweetie. You guys are so lucky." Donnie followed her gaze and smiled, then nodded in agreement.

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Yay, April now officially knows Renée. Yeah, the boys are seventeen and April is eighteen and on collage, but collage is easy when you have Donnie as a tutor. I wish I had Donnie as a tutor. That'd be fun. Anywho, thanks for all the review and such. Renée is sending out free glomps to everyone who reads this. Renée: *glomps everyone for reading this story*


	6. Two kamas and a mask

Late chapter, again. I don't have a set update time, but ad like to get out a chapter a week, but I think it keeps coming closet to two weeks than one. Anywho, at least I got it up.

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The day was fairly peacefully in the lair. The sunlight flooded through the grates and onto the large tree that sat in the dojo, which would be empty as soon as Master Splinter left. Life had settled into a comfortable routine in the seven months since April had brought then Renée. In the morning they would train, first the turtles, then Renée and Splinter; they would then go about their day, which usually consisted of fighting, playing video games, eating pizza, watching T.V, and training on the many dummies that were hanging around. When night fell, they would go out on patrols, come back to find that Renée had fallen asleep waiting for them, arguing about who would put her to bed(they would end up all doing it), then going to bed themselves. The occasional visit from April or Casey would throw a bit of added excitement into the usual day, but it all followed a general path.

This day was no different. They had all finished their training and four of them were in the main room of the lair, more commonly referred to as the _Meinrūmu_. Mikey was sitting in the tire swing, a comic book on his lap and a happy smile in his face as he read it. Raph was over at one if the dummies, punching and stabbing it with his sais, as Spike sat on a crate nearby, watching as he chewed his leaf. Donnie and Renée were both in the couch with books on their laps. Donnie had been teaching the child to read for the past month or so and had already make significant progress.

"The...m... man...sa... sat...on...the..log... He...l...lo...locked...up...to...the...sk...sky." Donnie shook his head, signaling her to stop. He lifted his gaze from his notebook, where he was sketching out some odd contraption to make, and looked at the words on her book. "Looked, not locked. Two 'o's make the 'oo' sound, not 'oh'. Your doing good, keep going." He encouraged, returning to his own book and adding a few more details and notes. Renée nodded slightly, then returned to reading. "He...bl...bli...blinked...as..a...la...lar...large...b...bird...swoo..." Her words were interrupted by a loud splash and Raph's angry scream. "MIKEY!" The orange banded brother had his face buried in the comic, hiding his smirk from his angry brother. After a brief minute, he glanced up to look at the now soaked Raph. "Yes, Raph? Is something wrong?" He asked innocently. Raph growled at him. "You are so dead, Mikey. You have three seconds to run." Mikey tossed the comic out harms way, flipped himself onto the floor(which was only a short distance away), and ran. By the time he had landed, Raph was already after him. Leo stuck his head out of his room, shouting at his brothers to shut up and leave each other alone, but, as usual, his orders were ignored.

Renée sighed slightly and slid her bookmark, a scrap of cloth she had found in Donnie's lab, into her book. She set the book down on her spot, and, knowing she wouldn't be able to get any more reading done with her two brothers chasing each other, went to help Raph tackle Mikey. It took both of them less than a minute to catch him, then she left her orange brother to the reds rage. By the time she returned to her spot, Leo was trying to get Raph to let Mikey out of his headlock, but to no avail. Renée sighed again and dragged her book off the couch, then padded closer to her brothers. Leo had managed to get Mikey away from Raph and was now swinging his swords around at a dummy, muttering under his breath about something as he did so.

The young lizard sat, cross legged, on the ground as she watched her brother. She set the book on her lap and looked down at the cover. It showed a man in tan shorts, a tan button-up shirt, boots, with a hat on; he was carrying a small statue, and running from some unseen terror. But it was the thing that sat at his hip that caught her eye. It was a sword, thicker, shorter, and more curved than Leo's, but still a sword. Renée's gaze flickered back up to her brother as he slashed at the dummy.

A soft sigh slipped from between her lips as she traced the man on the cover's weapon with a small finger. Her gaze flickered to the other weapons that were around the lair. Mikey had left his nunchuks on the table in front of the couch, right next to a nearly empty pizza box. Donnie's bō was propped up in a corner, supposedly out if harms way. Raph had his sais sheathed and was crouched next to Spike, feeding him a piece of lettuce. Leo still had his out and had nearly removed the arm of the dummy, again.

She felt a soft paw on her shoulder and looked up to see Splinter standing next to her. "Something trouble you, Renée?" He asked, crouching down so that he was closer to her. She was about to say no, but then sighed instead. "A bit. I was just thinking about how everyone else has a weapon. Leo has his swords, Raphie has his forks, Donnie has his stick, Mikey has his swingy things, April has her fan, Casey even has his hockey bats. I have nothing." Splinter nodded slightly as he listened to the child's words. "It is true, you have no weapon, but you are still young and your skills as a Kunoichi are improving every day. The weapon is not what makes the ninja, but the ninja that makes the weapon. Do you understand?" She hesitated a moment, then gave a small nod. "I think so." Splinter nodded slightly. "Good, why don't you go see of Leonardo will read with you, seeing as Donatello has left you for his machines." The two cast a amused glance towards Donnie's lab, which had all of its doors shut and, most likely, locked. Renée nodded slightly, stood, pressed a gentle kiss to Splinters cheek, then darted over to Leo, begging him to help her. He, of course, willingly complied.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*Three Weeks Later: 9:56 A.M*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Renée stood on a tall, skinny pole, her toes grabbing onto it in a extremely lizard-like way. There was about twenty-six identical poles set up in the dojo, each one set up my Splinter earlier that morning as the reptiles slept. It was mid-November, so the five youngest mutants all were much more sluggish, and Splinter would allow them to sleep in a bit. Donnie always insisted in was because they were cold blooded, so their animalistic side was preparing for a hibernation that would never come, but he said it in larger, more scientific words. Renée had a blindfold on and Leo, Raph, and Mikey were all trying to knock her off and onto the ground, Donnie had disappeared into his lab again the night before, right after his new machine failed its test run.

Renée spun her head around, listening closely for any signs of her brothers. She had always felt like it was slightly unfair to have the untrained ninja the one wearing the blindfold, but she also knew that by training with her well trained brother, she could work without her eyes better than most. A slight noise caught her attention and she turned her focus onto it, although she was still alert for any other sounds that may give her brothers away. A gentle breath and another soft clip of a pole being landed on was the only warning she had before Leo swept his leg towards her feet. She jumped and landed neatly on one of the nearby poles. She heard a soft rattle as Raph moved from one pole to another, slowly working his way towards her. She waited until he was a few poles away, then jumped from pole to pole until she landed on one of the outside corner poles. She heard a soft mutter to her left as Mikey charged forwards, hoping to use his momentum to knock her off and over the side. She waited until he was two poles away, then flipped over his head, using his own trick against him. He barreled right past her and, unable to stop himself, toppled off of the poles. "One down. Two to go." She muttered as she turned her attention back to her remaining brothers. She quickly dispatched Raph, using his own anger issues against him and taunting him into tackling her and missing one if the poles so he toppled to the ground. She turned to where Leo had been sitting, biding his time until he could attack.

"Your doing well, Renée. Using our brothers strengths against them. However, you can't hope to win this fight. I've managed to best everyone except for Splinter on this." The lizard simply shook her head. "I guess we just have to add one more to your 'unbeaten' list." Leo let out a soft chuckle, then slowly advanced. She stood her ground, waiting for him to near her. He was a few poles away and she was about to move, but then her pole wiggled violently. She let out a startled scream as she fell, but then wrapped her arms around one of the poles, halting her descent. Leo jumped off and landed next to Splinter and his brothers, so she let out a triumphant laugh. "I win! Leo touched the ground first. The rules are the last one on the poles wins. I'm still on the poles and everyone else is on the ground, so I win!" She said and she let herself fall the rest of the way to the ground. She walked over to her brothers and Sensei. Leo chuckled slightly. "I guess your right. You beat me." He rubbed her head, then turned towards Splinter as the old rat spoke. "Well done. Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo. You are dismissed, Renée, please stay." The three turtles bowed respectfully to their master, then stood and left.

Once they left, Splinter turned to his daughter, who was looking up at him with a questioning gaze. "Renée, do you still wish for a weapon?" The child nodded eagerly, already anticipating where this conversation would lead. "Then we should begin." Splinter turned and walked over to a small wardrobe that was nearly hidden behind the tree in the dojo. He opened the doors and the many weapons inside jangled slightly.

They went through almost every weapon in the wardrobe, and each one ended up flying out of her hands or destroying something. Finally Splinter pulled out two wooden, practice kamas and handed them to her. She was extremely hesitant as she grabbed the nigiri(grip) of the weapon. She turned them over in her hands, then started experimentally swinging them around. After a few minutes of this, she turned to Splinter with a wide grin plastered across her face. "These will work perfectly." She said, Splinter nodded slightly, having known that as soon as she held the small weapon. He put the practice kamas away and ducked into his room, returning with two bladed ones. He handed them to her and pulled a biscay mask from a pocket. He swiftly tied in around her face and gave her a smile. "Your favorite color, correct?" She lifted a hand and gently stroked her new masked, nodding happily. A smile pulled at Splinters lips and he gestured towards the door. "You can go now." She nodded and turned to dart away, then whipped around, dropped to her knees, and bowed to her teacher. "_Arigatō, Sensei_!" She jumped up and ran out of the dojo, her kamas clenched tightly in her hand as she went to show her brothers.

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Finally done! This chapter gave me much grief. As I've said before, I type this story on my iPod, and I accidentally erased my whole story as I was typing this chapter up. I had nearly finished the chapter too. But, it's up. Renée's mask is a dark blue called biscay, and her weapons are kamas. She will get the rest of her equipment in a few chapters. Well, review, fave, follow, all that good stuff? I'd love to hear from anyone, critiques are welcomed as much as praise, after all, I can't get better without knowing where I go wrong. Also, Renée does know the proper names of everyone's weapons, but she prefers to call them by her own names.


	7. First Christmas: Part One

It's been way too long since I last updated. I couldn't think of anything, a Christmas idea came to me a few days ago, so I got this typed up real quick. This is part one, I'm thinking two, possibly three, parts All all.

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The month of November slowly fell into December as the days got shorter and the nights grew longer. This as perfect for the four turtles, after all, they could go out when it was dark. They started leaving for their nightly patrol earlier and come back, cold and tired, much later then they should have. Renée gave up on staying up until they came home, but she would always come running out of her room when she heard them coming in.

Renée's training became slower as the days grew colder, since she seemed to become much more sluggish that the turtles ever had. Donnie had explained that she was simply more in tune with her animalistic side that they were, this causing her to feel the effects of the cold, winter air more.

As Christmas drew near, April insisted that they have a party with all their friends. It had only been done once before, just two years ago. The family had enjoyed it then, and that year they had also added Mikey's pet cat, Klunk, to the family. At that moment, exactly fifteen days until Christmas, they were gathered around the small table in front of the couch. April and Casey were with them and they were writing and sending out invitations to the ones they wished to have over.

"We have to invite Usagi, Gennosuke, Tomoe Ame, The Daimyo, and his son." Leo said, a smile creeping over his face at the thought of his friends. It had been two years since he had last seen the samurais and the Battle Nexus rulers. If fact, it had been two years ago at Christmas that they had come.

The others nodded their agreement and April quickly jotted down the names. "And the Justice Force! Silver Sentry said that he enjoyed last Christmas we had." Miley put in from his spot next to April, stoking Klunk as the cat slept in his lap. April nodded and jotted down the names then glanced at the others around the living room.

"Should I just go ahead and put everyone that we invited last time down?" She asked with a slight chuckle. The four turtles nodded, and glanced at each other. "Anyone else?" Donnie asked his brothers. The other three thought for a minute, then shook their heads.

"We haven't exactly met a whole lot of people since our last little get together. So that's pretty much everyone." Raph pointed out. He was sitting on the left end of the couch, with Spike on the armrest and Renée sleeping peacefully in his lap. The young lizard held hr stuffed rabbit close to her chest and she slept in her usual fetal position on her brother. "But we all know its just so that you guys can show Rennie off the all your friends." He noted as he offered his tortoise another leaf of lettuce.

Mikey smile, instantly spotting a way to tease his brother. "You're just jealous. You only have one friend and he already saw her. Right Casey." Casey had been sent off to do a, hopefully, not destructive activity, making paper snowflakes. The dark haired man looked up as he heard his name spoken. "What? Oh, yeah." He chuckled slightly. "Sorry Raph, but I am pretty much your only friend, other than April and your brothers of course."

The red masked turtle shrugged slightly. "Or maybe I'm just keeping my other friends hidden from you guys." He stood, scooping Renée up in one arm and Spike in the other. "You'll never know." He said as he walked past his younger brother.

Mikey watched him walk into Rennie's room to put her in bed, then disappear into his own with nothing more than a quick wave towards the group in the living room. "Don't mind him, Mikey. He's just trying to get under your shell. He knows you can't stand not knowing secrets." Leo said as he stood and grabbed the list and empty invitations. "I'll go get the these written down and sent off. You guys can go shopping for a tree. Casey, don't get one bigger than you can carry this time." He chuckled as he walked off with the papers and pen in his hands.

Mikey scrambled to his feet and darted off to get his clothes on so that he could go with Casey and April to choose out the tree. Donnie stood shortly after and started towards his lab. April padded after the purple masked turtle. "Aren't you coming to pick out the tree?" She asked as they neared his lab. He shook his head, a slight smile creeping across his face. He obviously had some idea in his head, so she decided not to press the subject. "No, I've got a couple things to do. Of anyone asks, tell them not to bother me please." Once she had nodded, he slipped into his lab and shut the door, followed by the soft click of the door being locked. She sighed softly and walked off to get ready to go.

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Well, what do you guys think? I'd love to hear all your thought and comment, web then good or bad.


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